In this beta release, Canvas has new features for course management and document previewing and annotations. Updated features are also available in People and the Rich Content Editor, and non-functionality changes have been made in Course Settings and Grades. For integration users, changes have been made to APIs and JavaScript functionality.

Features are subject to change based on user feedback and testing. Please follow the release notes for the latest information.

The beta environment is for testing new and updated features, which are subject to change at any time. Beta features will be available in production environments as noted in the Canvas release schedule.

Account-level features are not available in Free-for-Teacher accounts unless otherwise indicated.

For advanced JavaScript users: This release includes changes to Canvas that may affect styles and code in custom applications. Please make sure to view your Beta environment for any customization conflicts.

New Features

Blueprint Courses

Blueprint Courses are managed by the Blueprint Course feature option, which applies to the entire account. Admins can enable Blueprint Courses in Account Settings.

Blueprint Courses makes it easy for administrators or designers to deploy, update, and maintain course design templates or components across any number of courses or instructors. For an individual institution, Blueprint Courses allows Canvas admins to create content and learning objects, lock specific settings or content items, and push updates to all associated courses through course syncing.

Any items that are not locked can be managed individually by a course instructor. Content that can be managed by an instructor is not overwritten when the Blueprint Course is synced to associated courses, and new content created in any associated course is also not affected.

Updated Features

People

Group Leader Context Card

This feature requires the Student Context Card feature option, which applies to an entire account. Canvas admins can enable this feature in Account Settings.

Group leader links support student context cards. When an instructor opens a group set in a course and clicks the name of a group leader, the student’s context card displays in the sidebar. If the Student Context Card feature is not enabled for an institution, clicking the group leader’s name links to the student’s user details page.

Rich Content Editor

Content Selector Page Links

This update applies to institutions using the Remote Version of the Rich Content Editor and Sidebar account-level feature option, which is already enabled in Pages and the Syllabus but is currently optional in all other Canvas areas. Canvas admins can enable full Canvas availability for the Rich Content Editor Sidebar in their account by contacting their Canvas Customer Success Manager.

In the Content Selector Links tab, the Link to New Page link only displays to users who can edit pages. The Content Selector displays in any area of Canvas with the Rich Content Editor, such as course discussions. When a student views a discussion and creates a reply, the student cannot view the Link to New Page link unless the student can edit a course page. This change does not apply to groups, where students are always given access to edit pages.

Other Updates

Course Settings

Sidebar Links

The buttons in the sidebar have been changed for consistency with other sidebars and lists throughout Canvas. This change also improves accessibility in the Course Settings page.

Grades

Assignment Groups and Total Points

In the Student Grades page, the Out of Column displays assignment group point values in courses where students are allowed to view total grades.

If a student is not allowed to view total grades, the assignment group displays the total percentage for the assignment group only. Total grades can be restricted by an instructor in Course Settings by hiding the totals in the student grades summary. For courses involved in Multiple Grading Periods, admins can choose to not display totals when students view the All Grading Periods option.

Platform/Integration

API

Account Reports API

In the Account Reports API, the report object includes the current line count being written to the report and updates every 1000 records.

Files API

In the Files API, the Delete File endpoint provides clarification about deleting a file and how the call is irreversible. Moreover, content can only be deleted from the production environment.

Outcomes API

In the Outcomes API, the Update an Outcome endpoint allows users with the Manage Learning Outcomes permission to update text fields via the API, even if the Outcome has already been assessed. Previously, any Outcome with an associated student assessment could not be updated or edited. Supported fields include title, display_name, description, and ratings[][description]. Any other changes generate an error message.

Admins who are not able to make any JavaScript adjustments can maintain any existing accordion styles by adding widgetize-canvas-lms-user-content code to their Theme Editor JavaScript file. This code does not turn content into a widget but simply maintains accordion styling.

JavaScript files that still rely on Canvas jQueryUI will still view a deprecation warning when using .dialogue, .draggable, .resizable, .sortable, or .tabs widget class names, all of which will eventually no longer be supported in future releases.

Ultimately, institutions who rely on custom code should add their own UI library to the custom JavaScript file uploaded to the Theme Editor.

LTI Variable Substitutions

Launch Parameter Privacy Configurations

Updated content item launch lis_launch parameters are now sent depending on the configured tool’s privacy level. Prior to this update, privacy information had to be added using variable expansions in the tool configuration.

Great job with some of these new features, but still waiting on 3 simple grade codes for the gradebook. PND (Pending), INC, (Incomplete), and M (Missing). Your gradebook allows passback, so why can't these passback too instead of a blank in the gradebook? When our teachers put those codes into their gradebook, the grades get overwritten with blanks from Canvas passback. Please code these for the sake of sanity. Thank you!

Some great enhancements coming out in this release -- we're very excited about DocViewer and Blueprint courses!

I noticed the change to the right-hand buttons in course Settings on beta last week, and immediately questioned whether this was a good change. I'm not sure what sort of accessibility concern this change hopes to address, but it may put individuals with cognitive disabilities at a disadvantage. The accessibility settings in iOS include an option to turn on "button shapes" for specifically this reason.

It looks like there are many places in Canvas where buttons are still used on the right, and have some concern if this is to become a trend.

Darn I need to switch out a few accordians this week. Is there an ETA for .tabs being swapped out similarly? More heads up for that one would be nice. I have used tabs a LOT as it's such a useful feature (for non-admins) to compress long content into manageable chunks within a page.

What exactly is being removed? We aren't using the HTML classes mentioned, but we do use the .accordion() and .tabs() jQuery UI methods using our own selectors, and we rely on the jQuery UI styling that is in common CSS.

I checked our Beta instance and it APPEARS that everything will continue to work, but I want to be sure.

This functionality is a continuation to the JavaScript changes as announced in Canvas Production Release Notes (2017-02-18). Accordion is the first component that is no longer officially supported—we made the initial announcement to help admins prepare and adjust to the changes before widgets were individually announced (I am not sure when the others will start to be mentioned, but they'll be included in future release notes). Our engineers are doing what they can to make modifications to allow existing code to be functional and minimize disruption, but ultimately, all institutions that rely on custom code need to remove dependency on Canvas jQuery UI.

In DocViewer I am seeing some odd behaviour exhibited by both the strikethrough and highlighting as detailed below where extra lines/ highlighted sections appear above and below the words. They don’t affect text outside the selected area but do look odd. Is anyone else seeing this?

Also please can delete and backspace be used to delete annotations as opposed to just backspace?

Generally we ask for behaviors not to be noted here (per the feedback guidelines Renee posted), so you will most likely feel like the behavior is unique to you but it may not be. Unless a behavior is specifically noted in the release notes, feel free to submit a case to Canvas support and they'll be happy to help you troubleshoot what you're experiencing.